KENYA’S high altitude Nyandarua District is an agriculturally endowed region. With its ample climatic conditions –cool and wet - it is ideal for dairy farming. It has for a long time been and continues to be Nairobi’s breadbasket.
However, despite its high farm produce output, the district has ironically continued to suffer from high levels of poverty largely attributable to poor marketing, collapsed infrastructure and low produce prices.
But all is not lost as a new initiative, Ol Kalou Dairy Company, a local residents and Heifer Project International partnership which aims to empower farmers who are shareholders to produce and sell their milk to the dairy for cooling before being resold to the big milk processors.
This initiative hopes to help the farmers pool their resources to ward off the middlemen, who buy the milk at throw-away prices from desperate farmers.
According to an annual district agricultural report for 1998, the earnings from the dairy sector increased from KSh25.3 million in 1998 to KSh102.4 million the following year. However, the local farmers had nothing to show from the money earned.
And with the collapse of Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC), which was a giant farmers’ milk buyer, processor and seller, the farmers woes seemed to have just started. The collapse led to the infiltration of milk hawkers, unscrupulous middlemen and unviable small processing firms, which have more than compounded the farmers’ tribulations.
Farmers in the district just like the rest in post-liberalised dairy industry in Kenya have had to contend with poor payments and unreliable markets. Most of the milk produced is sold to hawkers or consumed locally without being processed. This has affected and drastically reduced the farmers’ incomes.
Milk dealers in the district transport their produce to major towns where they fetch more money at the expense of the farmers. “They buy our milk at very low prices and when they get to Nairobi the price is almost doubled. The money they get goes to develop other areas leaving us still in poverty,” says Peter Mbugua, a dairy farmer at Ol Kalou.
Mbugua, who has a herd of seven lactating cows, is one of the farmers who have decided not to sell their milk to hawkers. They instead sell their milk locally to institutions like secondary schools where they fetch a “good” price. Mbugua delivers his 20 litres of milk to a local school daily where he is and is assured of good and prompt payment.
The fluctuating the prices of milk has also put farmers in uncomfortable situation. Just in October last year the price a litre of milk was going for KShs20 but within three months the price dropped to between KShs7 per litre. Currently the price of a little milk is KShs.12 while those who transport it to Nairobi are selling the same quantity for KShs30.
Mbugua says, “If I sell the 20 litres for that price I will end up with KShs120 per day and with my seven animals I cannot afford to feed them leave alone pay for their labour”.
Ol Kalou area of the district is a high producer of milk with an estimated production of 50,000 litres of milk daily. The quantity is bought directly from the farmers by milk processing companies like Brookeside, Spin Knit and Ol kalou Dairy Limited
But the bigger chunk goes to middlemen who transport the milk still to the big milk processors or sell it to retailers in Nairobi and make huge profits.
However, the cooling equipment for the Ol Kalou Dairy Company have yet to be installed although they have been shipped into the country. In the meantime the before the cooling plant is installed the milk is collected daily and sold to Spin Knit Dairies, for cooling at Nyahururu.
The firm intends to install three cooling tanks with a quantity of over 30,000 litres. This will help the farmers to preserving their milk and minimise waste .The Heifer project is aimed at assisting local dairy farmers market their produce .at a reasonable return.
However, the farmers are still sceptical in dealing with the company. Because similar initiatives in the past have left the farmers disappointed after being swindled off their cash.
“There was a similar arrangement known as Malewa in early 90’s. They never fulfilled their duties and ran away with farmer’s money. I am not discouraging farmers but they should be careful” says Mwangi Macharia, a farmer.
Local leaders have supported the project and are assuring farmers that they stand to benefit this time round because this is a genuine venture. They have urged farmers to boost the production of milk in order to sustain the project.